There is going to be one less airline servicing in-state students trying to make it home this semester
Delta airlines has decided tto discontinue intrastate travel Oct.1, according to a decision handed down from Delta Airlines corporate offices.
The destinations affected include Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, Orlando and Tampa.
As the cost of jet fuel increased from $30 to a whopping $130 in the past few years, the entire airline industry is trying cope, said Philip Inglese, assistant director of the Tallahassee Regional Airport.
“Delta Airlines made a corporate decision, nationally, to stop serving low volume destination markets which includes Florida in-state travel,” Inglese said.
He said the decision was made in part because the Sunshine State’s intra-state travel routes utilize many of the older model smaller jets, which aren’t as fuel efficient as the bigger aircrafts.
Inglese said the airline industry is in crisis and attributes Delta’s decisions to high operating costs and decreasing numbers of people choosing to drive around the state rather than fly.
Airline industries have been using all sorts of cost cutting measures, from discontinuing complementary snacks and charging for headphones, to drastically discontinuing flights to smaller airports.
Ingeles said it was only a matter of time before the industry’s troubles were going to fully be felt locally.
“It’s a bigger picture than Tallahassee, all the airlines have been doing it,” said Libeth Sanchez a fourth-year health care management student, from Ft. Lauderdale.
Sanchez said Delta’s decision will increase the already high price of flying home.
“It already cost about $300 dollars to fly to Ft. Lauderdale or Miami,” Sanchez said. “Now with Delta pulling out, the other airlines are going to start jacking up prices because there is no competition.”
Inglese said there are two other airlines that still offer in-state travel destinations.
“American Airlines’ subsidiary, American Eagle, a smaller carrier, offers daily non-stop flights to Miami and Continental Gulf Stream Airlines offers non-stop flights to Tampa, Orlando, Ft. Lauderdale and Miami as well as Palm Beach,” Inglese said.
Fredrick Anderson a fourth-year business student from Indianapolis, Ind. said upon hearing the news he was worried Delta no longer offered flights out of Tallahassee.
“I was hearing that Delta didn’t fly from Tallahassee anymore and I would have to leave from Jacksonville or Atlanta, ” Anderson said. “I am glad it was just a rumor because flying to Indiana is already expensive, so driving to another airport was out of the question.”
Inglese said that Delta Airlines will continue to operate Tallahassee flights to destinations around the country. For more information, visit www.delta.com.